Twitter plans Android lockscreen maneuver with Cover app acquisition

Last month, Facebook surprised me when they bought Oculus, a company specializing in virtual reality gaming gear.

Today, Twitter played a card from their hand when they acquired “Cover” – an Android lockscreen app.

The difference between the two acquisitions? Twitter’s makes sense.

Cover puts the links to your most used Android phone apps right on your lockscreen for easy access. What makes this app really special is that the icons change based on the time of day. In other words, the app learns from your behavior then adjusts itself accordingly.

Morning commute? Cover hands you map and music. At work? Your calendar and To Do list show up instead. Evening? Shopping apps and Netflix. It’s the right app for the right time and place.

It’s also the perfect fit for Twitter. Remember, Twitter was designed to help people communicate quickly via their smartphone. It was for those times when something happened and you wanted to tell the world while you were still in the moment.

“You won’t believe who is in line in front of me at Starbucks. Jessica Alba!”

Then, suddenly we were Tweeting our every move and photos of everything we ate. But somewhere along the way, Twitter went from being a frivolous way of shouting out messages to a group of friends, to a legitimate way of keeping up with the news, marketing your brand and networking. For some, a Tweet is the easiest way to tell everyone at the office that you’re running late or that you closed the big deal. That’s where Cover comes in. The app has the ability to put Twitter front and center on every Android phone. Take that Facebook Home.

Twitter, like Cover, believes in the incredible potential of Android. They share our vision that smartphones can be a lot smarter — more useful and more contextual — and together we’re going to make that happen. We’ll be building upon a lot of what makes Cover great, and we’re thrilled to create something even better at Twitter.

So what does this mean for the Cover app? For now, Cover will remain available in the Play Store while we focus our attention on our work at Twitter. If that changes down the road, we’ll provide another update here.

As a loyal Twitter user, I’m for anything that makes it easier to access the app. Sadly, there’s one very big downside to increasing Twitter exposure – a rise in the divorce rate.

Russell Clayton, a doctoral student in the University of Missouri School of Journalism, says he’s seen a similar pattern on Facebook but only in people who have been together for under 36 months. With Twitter, the length of the relationship doesn’t matter, the more you Tweet, the more your relationship is doomed.

Clayton says that reducing the amount of time you spend on social media could keep the two of you together, as long as you recognize the symptoms and stop before it’s too late.